Hiboux: Command The Earth To Swallow Me Up

Reviewed by Ania Glowacz

Hiboux: Command The Earth To Swallow Me Up

Instrumental music can be a very powerful thing – conveying thoughts and emotions beyond words because the visions are all your own. With this stunning set of soundscapes, Wellington’s Hiboux easily cement their place among other more famous post rock proponents such as Jakob, Mogwai and God Speed You Black Emperor, et al.

Originating in 2013 this first full album comes after last year’s ‘Night Flights’ EP. Following the canon of the dynamic loud/soft aesthetic, Hiboux (pronounced ‘ee-boo’) make it their own with some unexpected guitar sounds and the occasional prog rock flourish.

Each track is an epic journey of some length, without overstaying its welcome.

The five-piece is Lester Litchfield and Bern Stock on guitars, Duncan Nairn on bass, drummer Declan Bailey and Tom Doesburg on keyboards and synths.

This is from Karori and sounds amazing. There is subtle, there is powerful, but there’s a palpable controlled restraint that makes it all the more enjoyable because the music shifts easily between sparse and melodic, to heavily layered, to crescendo – without giving in to ‘heavy’ for heaviness’ sake.

To a quite long roster of proponents of wandering vocal-less musical odysseys, Hiboux have given us something uniquely their own. As an intro check out their video for closing track Precession.